Hebron v. Hebron

Appeal
from the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis Hon. James E.
Sullivan.

OPINION

Angela
T. Quigless, P.J.

Timothy
Hebron appeals from the decree of dissolution of marriage in
the divorce action brought by his wife, Christine Hebron. In
particular, he appeals the circuit court's finding that a
bank account held by himself and his wife as joint tenants
actually belonged to Christine Hebron's mother, Claire
DePalma, who was not a party to the proceedings. We reverse
and remand with instructions that the circuit court join
sua sponte Claire DePalma as a necessary party
pursuant to its authority under Rule 52.04, [1] and conduct a new trial in accordance with
this opinion.

FACTUAL
AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Timothy
Hebron ("Husband") and Christine Hebron
("Wife") were married in February of 1996. Ten
months later, Wife's mother, Claire DePalma,
("Mother") opened a bank account at Vanguard (the
"Vanguard Account") and titled it in the name of
Husband and Wife as joint tenants with rights of
survivorship. Mother completed the forms necessary to create
this account and presented them to Husband and Wife for their
signatures.

The
following facts are undisputed. Mother made the initial
deposit into the Vanguard Account and she was the only person
that ever made deposits into the account. Neither Husband nor
Wife ever withdrew any funds from the Vanguard Account. The
account statements were sent directly to Mother, and Husband
and Wife never saw these statements. In fact, neither Husband
nor Wife was aware of the balance in the Vanguard Account at
any time prior to the divorce proceedings. The only act
either Husband or Wife ever took in relation to the Vanguard
Account prior to the commencement of this divorce proceeding
was their signatures on the forms creating the account.

Although
Husband and Wife claimed the capital gains from the Vanguard
Account on their income taxes, Mother actually paid for these
taxes by giving Husband and Wife a check to cover the expense
at the end of every year. The only dispute is that Husband
claimed the check from Mother was not intended to cover the
tax expenses of the Vanguard Account. Husband admitted at
trial that Mother gave them a check at the end of each year,
but claimed this was a Christmas gift.

At
trial, Mother testified that she created the Vanguard Account
to provide for her future medical care, so that her children
would have access to the funds necessary to pay for her
medical care. Mother clearly testified, "It was not a
gift. It was for my care. . . . It was never intended as a
gift. It was always for my good." Similarly, Wife
testified that:

My mom set up the account to have funds available should she
ever need them for any kind of long-term care, any type of
thing like that. The account was not to be touched by [my
Husband] nor I. It was, it's solely my mom's money
set up for that purpose.

There
was also evidence that Mother set up similar accounts in the
names of her other children and their spouses. Each of the
other children similarly testified that those accounts were
also intended to provide for Mother's care and medical
expenses, and not as gifts.

In May
of 2015, Wife filed for dissolution of marriage. Husband and
Wife agreed to a settlement disposing of all issues regarding
property settlement except for one, the division of assets in
the Vanguard Account. The circuit court conducted a bench
trial on this issue alone. After trial, the court issued
findings of fact and conclusions of law, concluding that the
Vanguard Account was not subject to division in the divorce.
The court found that Mother never intended to gift the money
in the Vanguard Account to Husband and Wife, therefore the
property was neither marital nor separate property because it
was never acquired by them during the marriage. The circuit
court also noted in its findings that it was not fully
informed of the circumstances of the Vanguard Account, and
that if it had been prior to trial, the court would have
requested that Mother intervene in the case.

The
circuit court then issued a judgment dissolving the marriage
and dividing the marital property according to the Joint
Stipulation to Division of Property and Debts agreed to by
the parties. The court also issued the following order:

Neither party shall withdraw, transfer, encumber, or alter in
any form or fashion the [Vanguard Account] currently titled
in the name of Husband and Wife as joint tenants with right
of survivorship, until further order of Court.

After
the judgment, Wife filed a motion requesting the court reopen
the evidence to allow Mother to join as a third-party
intervenor. Husband opposed this motion and filed his own
motion to amend the judgment, raising the same issue as in
this appeal. Mother filed a motion to intervene ...

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